Every month we send an email newsletter to our supporters sharing recent updates from our work. We publish selected portions of the newsletter on our blog to make this news more accessible to people who visit our website. For key updates from the latest installment, please see below!

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Announcing GiveWell’s Largest Single Grant to Date

In December, we approved a $96.3 million grant to the Against Malaria Foundation—the largest single grant in GiveWell’s history! This grant was made possible by donors across all levels—from monthly contributors to our Top Charities Fund to major supporters of our Unrestricted Fund—who enabled this unprecedented scale of impact.

We expect this grant to have major positive impacts above what otherwise would have occurred, including:

• Supporting the procurement and distribution of over 17 million additional insecticide-treated nets in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria, and Zambia
• Providing net coverage to nearly four million more young children
• Preventing over four million additional cases of malaria
• Averting over 21,000 more deaths

To put this in perspective: the lives this grant will save—more than 21,000 people—would fill Madison Square Garden. That’s over 50 lives saved every day for a year! Beyond preventing deaths, protecting nearly four million children from malaria has lasting effects on their development, education, and future earning potential.

In addition to its historic size, this grant reflects key improvements in our research process. Our recent “red teaming” exercise revealed issues with the disease burden data we had been using, which led us to analyze multiple data sources to better understand malaria prevalence. This, combined with insights from key stakeholders—including external funders and local government officials—improved our ability to target funding at the highest-burden areas. Without this funding, these countries would either have reduced coverage or faced delays in their distribution campaigns, potentially leading to gaps in coverage during peak malaria season.

U.S. Foreign Aid Freeze Virtual Event

We are closely monitoring the rapidly evolving situation surrounding the freeze in U.S. foreign aid, and we are in touch with people in the government and at nonprofit organizations to understand immediate impacts and long-term implications. We recently hosted a virtual webinar to share our current understanding. While much remains uncertain, we wanted to share what we’re hearing from our network, and how these changes may affect our work.

If you missed the event, you can watch the video recording. Please feel free to share this link with any friends, family, or colleagues who may be interested in learning more.

January Quiz Question + Answer

Last month’s quiz question: Approximately how much funding did GiveWell recommend to nutrition programs in 2024?

The answer: In 2024, GiveWell recommended approximately $48.6 million in grants to support vitamin A supplementation, iron fortification, malnutrition treatment, and more! Read more about our nutrition research team’s work in this blog post.

Out of the 28 responses we received—with answers ranging from $2 million to $900 million—the closest guess was $50 million! Congratulations to our winner, who will receive a GiveWell hat!

Sign up for our newsletter and answer our monthly quiz question for your chance to win!

Research and Partner Roundup

• GiveWell published new research pages on a grant to PATH to provide technical assistance to governments supporting rollouts of malaria vaccines, a short note on magnesium sulfate for preeclampsia, and more.
• New Incentives announced 1.7 million new infant enrollments to their program in 2024, more than any other previous year.
• Helen Keller Intl distributed more than 87 million capsules of vitamin A to children at risk of vitamin A deficiency in 2024.